Almost finished with this one. While I enjoyed Earth X for what it was, the story here is the most convoluted I've encountered in years. It seems as if they're trying to make everything fit in the short space they have. At least books like Marvels and Kingdom Come didn't require you to be a scholar on the Marvel and DCU to enjoy.

I did like some of the individual stories with Spider-Man and Capt America, and the art isn't too bad, but other than that I'm not impressed. Did this do well at the comic shops? I guess I'll have to buy the second one to see how it turns out. At least with alldirect.com it's not too expensive.

Eric, it struck me that your post - given that it was a standalone mini-review, much as one finds in the similarly-named, book-oriented thread - made a good starting off point for a one-and-only thread where folks could posted briefly about what comic books they were reading right now i.e. over and above any stuff from the "weekly" thread. [Please email me if you like/dislike being the threadstarter and I'll leave things/change things back asap and delete this post. ]


Benedict

I won reprints of the first 80 issues of Cerebus off eBay, and I've just started the "Church & State" arc. Unfortunately, I'm going to be forced to buy 11 TPB's very soon.

Nah, that's ok you can leave it as it is. I'm not that anal.

I want to make it clear that I'm talking about the $25 priced TPB. Does anyone know if they skipped some issues in the series or they're all here? Vol2 comes out next month, so hopefully they'll tie off some of the million or so loose plot-threads hanging around.

I hear the individual Universe X books did well at the stands. Did anyone else read them and feel as confused as I am?

I put Earth X in the last paragraph by mistake. I mean Universe X which is the 2nd and 3rd collected volumes of the whole "X" series.

I read the giant Earth X TPB awhile ago...and I liked it, but the art was a big distraction...I prob. won't read Universe or Paradise. The Earth X TPB reprinted the series, but not the one-shots.

There are a few of the one-shots in Vol1 Universe X so they probably didn't have enough to fill up space. You can tell the Spider-Man one-shot is so much better than the rest of the story.

The fact that it has no written dialogue at the end of it shows how much more self-explanatory it is than the rest of it.

Well, right now I am reading SQUEE'S Wonderful Big Book of Unspeakable Horrors by Jhonen Vasquez (I just finished JTHM TPB and had to continue with the story). I'm also touching on My Book of Numbers by Alex Pardee and Hairbat by David Zapanta when I only have a second to read.

IIRC, the universe x TPBs reprinted everything, one-shots included. while i like both of the previous ones, i am not going to pick up paradise x until the TPB comes out. i have gotten to the point where i prefer them, and sometimes they are actually cheaper to pick up then the run of actual issues themselves.

right now i am reading ultimate spider man. while batman is my favorite character, there are too many months where because of the sheer number of titles, the quality suffers. USM is my most enjoyable read every month and some of the best writing of a character i have ever seen. bendis and bagley have got the whole thing nailed as to what makes up peter parker. it's just a shame that one day it will have to end.

Question about Spider-Man and Gwen Stacey brought up in the one-shot in Universe X:

Is there any truth to this? Maybe I should pick up the Gwen Stacey TPB. It's been so long since I've read it. I always thought it was the other way around. Of course the explanation to this is that it's an alternate universe, yadda, yadda...

Yeah, it was kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

Thanks. That's kind of interesting because it's sort of stated in a way like he's been keeping it to himself for all this time. Is he doing so in the current books? I haven't picked up Spider-Man since the mid 90s. I don't recall it ever being an issue for Peter.

RE: Peter/Gwen

Just finished Jimmy Corrigan The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware.
Difficult to describe but it's wonderfully written.
It's quite rough to read because of the subject matter - very Freudian.
At first I wasn't sure what it was - when I saw it I thought it was a reptint of something from the '50's, it had an instant retro feel to it.
Then when I picked it up to look at it I thought someone had bought the franchise of an old newspaper strip and imagined what the hero would be like today.
On investigation, I found it was entirely the work of Chris Ware, the writer and artist.

I'm in the process of reading DC's "Greatest Stories Ever Told" hardcovers. Recently read "Golden Age", "1950's", "Team-ups", and I'm reading "Flash" right now.

I really think DC should consider bringing these back. I know their focus is on the Archives volumes but how many of us can afford to buy 13 volumes of Justice League or Legion Archives at $50 bucks a pop? Give me the "Greatest" books any day.

I also always thought they should make hardcover volumes chronologically reprinting the annual JLA/JSA team-ups. These were always my favorite stories. I believe they are making a tpb volume soon, which may be a haphazzard collection of stories.

After the Flash volume I'll be reading David Lapham's "Murder Me Dead".

My comic book store recently had a sale on its trade paperbacks, so I picked up Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl? and Powers: Roleplay. I've read the first and was very happy with both the story and the art. I'm not sure if this is an original concept or not, but I thought it was a facinating premise. We see good guys and bad guys go at it all the time, but there is something about how regular joes deal with the consequences that facinates me. Marvels and the Soap storyline in Punisher were very good me thinks.

Anyone know why Powers #7 wasn't included in either trade? Also when is the next Powers trade going to be on sale?

The send Powers trade is already out. Powers: Roleplay. And it covers the entire second storyline. The 3rd Powers trade comes out in August. And will have the 3rd story arc plus issue #7. I use to know why #7 was included in the first 2 trades but I forgot.If I think of it I'll post 3 why.

Well, aside from the over 30 montlies I pick up every month, that I use to talk about in the weekly comic thread( I haven't been around much to start the thread & I see it died), I just started getting all of the. . .

Blade of The Immortal Trades. I'm only on the second trade so far Cry Of The Worm but it is just riveting stuff. I'mm really surpised you don't hear more about this book, I know it was Wizard Magazine's book of the month last issue.

I've just got though reading" Tangle Web" about Crusher Hogan and Tributaion Force today.Taking my time with Akira Book 6, read most of the Marvel/ Epic issues and this one is the final arc.
I'm going to get back into Powers tonite,finsh reading 14-19.
PS Powers#7 was a one-shot to save time for Roleplay.

David Lapham's "Murder Me Dead" is absolutely great stuff. Very Noir-ish. I need to read some of his Stray Bullets stuff.

Blade of the Immortal is one of my favorite books. I have all the tpbs and can't wait for the next one that's supposed to come out in August, I think.

For my own reading, I've just finished reading Alan Moore's absolutely great League of Extraordinary Gentlemen HC. I was a bit miffed that this is the only ABC book that's not available in tpb, but I finally gave up and bought it. Very good, but I still would have preferred a soft cover version.

I'm trying to decide what to read now between From Hell, the complete Nausicaa tpbs by Hayo Miyazaki (sp?), or the complete Akira series. Don't know. I could always just decided to finally read my Kabuki Metamorphosis tpb by David Mack, that I've been saving for a special day. I have a whole stack of unread tpbs that I have to choose from. Tough choices, I know...

Thanks for the heads up! I will keep my eyes open for it!

You won't go wrong by reading Nausicaa.

I'm onto the Compleat Moonshadow TPB.

I love it! It's actually so well written I think it comes in second next to Will Eisner's "A Contract with God" (which you should all read too).

I just read Jimmy Corrigan and thought it was probably the best damn comic ever made. It moves ahead of Palestine, Maus, and David Boring,

Better than A Contract With God? You realize that that book in particular pretty much started the "Graphic Novel" genre. It's really, really good, and even though it's not what some would consider a "Graphic Novel" by today's standards it's still a wonderfull piece of work. I'll have to pick up The Spirit Archives one of these days...

There are lots of Graphic Novels which aren't the typical superhero stories and they always seem to have superior writing. The best of them deal with everyday life, Contract, Ghost World, Jimmy Corrigan, Moonshadow, Maus, etc.

Reading the 100 Bullets tpb right now, First Shot, Last Call. I have also been meaning to pick up the second tpb in the Ultimate Spider-Man series.

100 Bullets is by far my current favorite comic book ( & I read over 30 monthlies, so it's not an easy decision). The thing w/ 100 bullets is you have to make it to the second trade. Most people are not convinced or hooked, & some even turned off by the first trade. But once you realize the "BIG" picture of the book, which isn't even hinted at in the first trade, you will realize what a truly brilliant & aboslutely amazing book it is. And now is a good time to get into it as the 4th trade is coming out this Wed.